In kiosks, the newspapers of the national daily press (PQN) will cost more at the beginning of January 2023. It will be necessary to pay 20 centimes more to buy the paper edition of the Figaroof the Echoes or even World, which will increase to 3.40 euros. The cross and Release will increase by 30 and 20 cents respectively, to reach 2.70 euros. As for The Teamthe newspaper will be sold 10 cents more expensive (2.30 euros per week and 3.30 euros on Saturdays with the magazine), from January 2.
If price increases are recurrent at the beginning of the year in the press, publishers justify this one by the explosion of the costs of newsprint and, more generally, of production costs. The price of paper per ton was 400 euros in the first quarter of 2021, a historically low price. It has now reached 900 euros, after even climbing to 1,100 euros in November.
This increase is linked to the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the rise in energy costs, but not only. “Paper manufacturers are redirecting their investments towards cardboard packaging, because it is a very dynamic market, with e-commerce for example, but this is being done to the detriment of the production of newsprint”, estimates Pierre Petillault, the general manager of the Alliance of the press of general information. For the information press, the additional cost linked to the increase in the price of paper is estimated at 150 million euros in 2022, according to Mr. Petillault. “It’s even probably much more taking into account all the magazines”he laments.
“We have reduced our pagination by almost 20%”
The regional daily press (PQR), whose economic model is still essentially based on paper sales, is all the more hard hit by this jump in costs. For the EBRA group – owner of the Dauphine Liberefrom Progress and Latest News from Alsace –, which had managed to return to equilibrium in 2021, the additional cost is estimated at 15 million euros in 2022. This puts a strain on the company’s accounts which, once closed, could total around ten million euros operating losses.
“To consume less paper, we have reduced our pagination by almost 20%”explains Rémy Ramstein, industrial director of EBRA, judging that this new period of crisis in a market already weakened by the drop in newsstand sales and the increase in carrying costs ” [accélérait] all the more the transition to digital”. Pending this switch, which will be difficult as the readership of the PQR is attached to the paper format, seven of the nine newspapers of the press group will increase by ten cents on January 1.
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